The Daily Word

2000 years ago, there was a crucifixion outside Jerusalem. I don’t know if it was a regular event but certainly the religious rulers all knew about crucifixion because they had been the prime movers to get this man crucified. To them He was a troublemaker who disturbed their cosy setup where they could just tell people how much they were doing wrong because they had added hundreds of laws to the basic Ten Commandments and they could look holier than thou at the same time.

This man, Jesus, came along and preached love and faith, not works, and that upset them greatly because these concepts were totally alien to the way they said a person needed to worship God.

A hard-bitten centurion was given the job of supervising this execution, probably a job he had done many times before, so he thought he had seen it all and was no longer phased by seeing men die in agony. But this one was totally different. Firstly, the man didn’t curse and swear or scream for mercy like many others had done. 

Secondly, the weather went beserk, There was pitch darkness in the middle of the day for 3 hours and an earthquake as well and he made a statement that few people had made while Jesus was on earth, “Truly this Man was the Son of God”. He got it almost right. He thought Jesus had died like every other man who had been crucified. But what the world was yet to witness was the glorious resurrection of Jesus and we can now formally change that statement to “Truly this man IS the Son of God, eternally.”

Let us rejoice always in the death and resurrection of our Saviour who bore our sin in His body on the tree.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church